WebKit Developers Discuss Removal of Google Specific Code

Just a couple of days back Google announced that it will be going ahead with a WebKit fork to develop a new browser engine – Blink. According to Google, having multiple renderer engines just like multiple browsers will allow for innovation as well as contribute towards a healthy open web ecosystem.

The discussion on removal of Google specific code was started by Geoffery Garen, Apple WebKit developer. He said that the recent development is an “opportunity to streamline” the code of WebKit which would eventually make the “development easier and more coherent for everyone”. Garen expects that developers who will be working on WebKit in future should help out to clean up the code but, Adam Barth and Eric Seidel – two Google WebKit developers have already offered their help.

According to Garen code related to V8, Chromium directories present in the WebKit Core, tools and different tests, Google’s Skia graphics API, DOMFileSystem and .gpy files should be deleted from the code base.

Developer Mario Prada jumped into the discussion and revealed that WebKitGTK+ an dV8 are being used by the Samsung and that code related to these two should be kept. Skia graphics API may be removed as BlackBerry has already moved away from it and EFL’s WebKit uses Cairo.

The entire cleanup process is meant to make WebKit more efficient and future development more streamlined. We would recommend that all those developers who are using WebKit should have their eyes and ears open before Google specific code removal takes place otherwise you may be left surprised.

Ravi is the founder of Parity Media and currently acting as an editor of ParityNews.com. He is a technology enthusiast with keen interest in information security. Ravi has over 6 years of experience and is keen on raising general awareness about technology in society.